Audio/Visual (A/V) content in the home today involves a plethora of hardware and software components from a wide variety of manufacturers. These components have not fully leveraged the various advancements in interoperability and device connection and communications that exist today. A typical A/V system setup is comprised of multiple devices hard-wired to one another, often times through a tuner/source switcher. As a result, the bulk of the functionality of such systems is generally provided in one room or within a limited area of a house. For example, in a typical home with reasonably capable A/V components, a child's room may have a Compact Disk (CD) player, speakers and a Television (TV) but the TV is probably not connected to the external speakers. Whereas, the TV, Digital Video Disk (DVD), VCR, speakers and stereo system in the family room are all connected together.
While it may be possible to interconnect the components in the child's room in a stand alone manner or in combination with the family room, most people will attest to the complexity and hassle of running wire from component to component or to speakers all around a room, let alone all around a house.
A typical example of the A/V system and connection in a home will be discussed with reference to FIG. 1. As illustrated, a typical home system may include a Satellite Receiver Cable Box 102, a PC with a digital music player 104, a VCR 106, a CD/DVD Player 108, a Tuner or Source Switcher 110, a TV 112, a Sound Processor 114, an Amplifier 116, and a Left Channel Speaker 118 and Right Channel Speaker 120.
The Satellite Receiver 102, the PC 104, VCR 106, CD/DVD 108 and TV 112 (collectively referred to as source devices) are all connected to the Tuner/Source Switcher 110. Generally, each source device is individually connected to the Tuner Source Switcher 110 via a pair of audio cables. Each pair of audio cables provides a signal for the left and right channels of the system. Alternatively, a digital point to point interconnect could be used such as Sony/Phillips Digital Interface Format (SPDIF) which is an isochronous interconnect. These signals are then ultimately channeled to the appropriate one of the Left and Right Channel Speakers 118, 120. A Sound Processor 114 can be incorporated in the Tuner 110 or in some cases is contained in a separate device. In either case, the Sound Processor 114 provides further processing of the source signal to generate sounds such as stereo, surround sound and other such sound effects. The Amplifier 116 can also be incorporated within the same unit as the Tuner 110 and Sound Processor 114. The Amplifier 116 provides amplification of the signals to both the Left Channel Speaker 118 and the Right Channel Speaker 120.
Generally speaking, the functions described thus far are only feasible if the individual components are properly connected to one another. Problems tend to arise because users are faced with multiple connectors and multiple wires which must be properly connected. Further compounding the user's dilemma is the need to distribute or extend the audio/visual information to multiple rooms within the home. Traditional stereo systems do not lend themselves to distributed control nor extensive wiring of speakers or other components over great distances. In this regard there have been no major advances with A/V systems that leverage any of the recent technology revolutions relating to data communications. Attempts to address electronic A/V communication issues have typically been hampered by limitations that are attributable to the current hard wired mode of operation and the physical components that are used today. For example, the quality of A/V reproduction diminishes as one attempts to place output components at great distances from source components. In part this is due to signal loss within the physical wires that are used and the lack of a simple way to control multiple connected devices.
Attempts to work around or resolve some of the connection problems related to the extensive wiring discussed above have included special purpose schemes that communicate between components wirelessly or non-standard schemes that attempt to utilize the AC wiring of the home as a medium to communicate between A/V components. These attempts have fallen short of their mark in numerous ways. Some of the shortcomings include poor sound quality due to factors such as noise or interference from other devices. Other shortcomings are related to expense due to the non-standard hardware approach. The expense of incorporating sufficiently sophisticated transmitters and receivers at a reasonable cost in home A/V systems to enable A/V distribution via such mediums has been prohibitive.
The need to sever the close tie between source A/V devices and output A/V devices necessitates a communication paradigm that provides a low cost, transparent and intelligent link between such devices.
In light of the foregoing, there exists a need to provide a system and method that will enable the disaggregation of A/V components. More importantly, such disaggregation would be based on a methodology that is independent of the location of any participating components and any underlying communication protocols. Furthermore, there exists a need for a system and method that also provides a flexible scheme and pleasurable user experience for the installation and utilization of such A/V components. Even further there exists a need for a system that addresses the limitations of locale and the physical proximity of A/V components.